So this is my BIRTH MONTH!!! I’m playing it super chill this year, since summer was so packed full of events, and I did a lot last year for my birthday. I was planning on some events, but they’ve fallen through, sadly. Next year though. There’s next year, and next year will be a better year (hint: I’ll be worth a US quarter! I know I’m worth so much more than that, but it’s a cute joke!).

For this month, I have more content planned for you guys, and this will be more of a month for relaxing, taking long weekends, and enjoying alone time, and time with those I care about the most. Let’s get to planning, shall we?

I usually start with my whiteboard, even though I should start with my Artist of Life Workbook review of the previous month. Wiping it clean allows me to have a clean slate of what will be in front of me, so I can just keep the past, well, the past. I set the month up numerically, then go into the review of the previous month, for what I didn’t finish.

On the whiteboard, I note any plans, and for this month, it’s just my birthday and a live chat that I have in my Artist of Life Mastermind group, as you can see. Sometimes it’s as simple as that, and other times, it’s more complicated like June was.From there, I can easily see what is happening, and what days are where.

Since it’s an easy glance, I go from there, into either my notebook, like this month, or into a digital note, usually on my phone, to plan out what blog posts I want to do that month. Then from the ideas, I set the date I want them to be posted on.

For this month, since I had things written out on paper, and I wrote down some notes, I took the themes of the blog posts, and put them on a sticky to-do note pad, and on the far side I write the tentative days I wanted to post them on.

Past this, I don’t have much plans for the month, other than tentative plans of relaxing, and birthday dinner(s), depending if I feel like doing a solo date, and one with my dad, and if my guy and I go out.

I also planned out my meals for the month, since I’m doing a cleaning out of our cupboards this month. It’ll help me with some of the food days, plus clean out the stock we have, and I don’t feel bad for wasting it, or donating it.

I know there’s people who could use the help, and I’ve been there before (ironically, there’s a few canned goods that are left over from my dad’s raid of his pantry, since he’s doing a Keto meets low sodium diet).

I used to take a big monthly wall calendar to meal plan, but I noticed that I would forget what I was meal planning for the week, when I’d be shopping, and wonder why I would need one random ingredient, or something of the like, and dumb me would just not get it.

Now that I’ve gone digital, I can look at the meal plans on the go, and if I can’t recall why I need something, or if I need to tweak something, I can see what needs it, more on the fly. I love being frugal and prepared, and it’s so much easier. Plus, with trying to be more conscious of what I use, and why (really, the Konmari mentality, of if it truly brings me joy, and adds value to my life), I feel better by using what I already have.

What do you do to plan your month? Do you meal plan for the month, or by the week, if at all? I’d love to know your answers, truly!

Disclaimer: I don’t have or use Happy Planner products (well yet…2019 will be that year.). My sister though…check her out on insta. If her cute spreads can’t win you over into even just planning and using planners/schedules, you might want to go get checked out by a professional (haha…but really, who are you?)

Over the last couple years, I’ve been finding my taste. It started in the middle of 2016 really. I had gotten a large calendar, but hadn’t used it. For whatever reason, I started using it as a food planning calendar. I did the same thing for 2017 and 2018. Now I do a spreadsheet first of the month, because it was going tacky, fast.

2017 started my Artist of Life Journey, and I also started tracking when bills were due in a desk calendar. 2018 for the most part has been the same, but I’ve also added in making sure that I put in family and friends’ birthdays, so I could mail out cards, as well as making sure there was at least a holiday card as well, for everyone.

I also have a whiteboard calendar for my goals, and as of late, writing down when I want to bulk start my posts, as well as adding in when my posts are going live.

YES, I’m turning into one of those. Already? YES ALREADY! Next year I want to do even better. I want to go more all out, while still saving and managing things, so that babe and I can do what we want as well.

I’m highly considering changing up how I do things, when 2019 comes around. But that’s a half a year away, plus I still need to figure out how I want to do it differently, and gathering all of the supplies for it.

All of this is why planning is so important! I know it’s only June but think of next year. Even a card can make someone’s day, for their birthday, their religious holidays, and even just a “thinking of you” when they might be dealing with something, or just as a reminder that you still care.

At the end of last year, I made sure to get some spare holiday cards, as I’m personally not Christian, but know that Christmas is important for a lot of my loved ones. I also made sure that I counted all those I needed birthday cards for, and ordered a box of various birthday cards, for this year.

This is an easy way of planning, and to start writing a cute note inside each card, at least putting your address and a stamp on it, then when it’s about a week out from their birthday, making sure you have the correct mailing address, and all you have to do is mail it out, is so easy, and is a rather simple way of putting a smile on someone’s face.

Anyway, you probably wanted to see how I’m planning one of my busiest months of the year, didn’t you?

For my blog posts, I started this method last month, and have liked it so far. Especially since I’m traveling this month for 2 full weeks, this method is going to work out great, since I only need 3 days of being “online” on my laptop.

What I did, was sketch out what days I wanted to post, which also meant planning out what I actually was posting. Usually I know what I’m posting on each day, but there’s 2 days that could be a conflict, since I am traveling, and am unsure of plans, let alone if I’ll have internet access to upload the review on the day I am planning. Hence what you see on the picture, is what it is.

I’ll be able to write things as they come along, then when I’m online on those three days, I just need to upload the posts, for scheduling.

My other big task is planning out meals, and budgeting. Both are so closely tied, that I’m just saying it at the same time. Now I’m not sharing my actual budget, as that’s just a tad too much.

If you know of a great budgeting planner/notebook let me know! I’ve just been using spreadsheets for each pay (I get paid every other week, right now), and as easy as it’s been, I’d love to try new ways to manage my budget!

Half of the month, for food planning is really sideways for me for June, as I have to plan for babe’s food while I’m gone, as well as my own, for the most part, plus the half of the month where we’re together.

I’m not inserting babe’s food on the calendar, as he can pick and choose what he wants each day, but I have a running list of what needs picked up before I leave, for him.

Past that, it’s a very much “look at the planner”, as during my 2 week vacation, I have a 3 night stay in Yosemite with family, as well as a 4 night stay in Anaheim, and the rest is with my mom.

I won’t share those plans, as you’ll see my posts throughout the month on here, plus on my social medias (insta, FB, Twitter).

Well hello there, again! I don’t know if anyone is interested in how I plan out my month, but this is my “boring month” before things get hectic for summer, so I wanted to share a “basic month” (because this is most of the time for me, with small variations), before doing one like this for a summer month this year.

I’m wanting to share June’s, as she’ll be a busy AF month, and it’ll make my life seem that much more fun than it really is. I may share September’s as well, if these go well, viewer wise/if that’s what y’all want (because that’s my next good month).

So let’s get into it, shall we?

I have 3 different “levels” of planning, and one way that I always have as a template. The “template” is the Artist of Life workbook. My “levels” of planning, is budgeting (which includes a spreadsheet and marking down due dates on my planner. I won’t be sharing that here though.), then meal planning for at least 80% of the month, then to planning out how I’m spending my free time, on my whiteboard.

Most of what lands up on my whiteboard changes each month, due to what I’m doing socially (like this summer, June will look a lot different than May), and what might be going on that I need to focus on (like elections, major holidays where I want to do themed posts…check out my World Book Day post from last week, if you haven’t already).

So this is the monthly spread that gets my month really started, outside of budgeting. My paychecks vary and come every 2 weeks, so I can’t just say permanently “oh I’ll spend $500 total on groceries for the next 3 weeks” and the like. I do stick to a pretty rigid spending template, and it works pretty well, as I know if I need to sacrifice something, I know where to do it.

May is very basic and is focused on trying to tidy up some of the apartment. I wanted to go full on out, but with recent health issues between babe and I, that’s on hold, and it’s more on just trying to tidy up, donate, and discard things.

Hopefully next year, I can finish off this project, and make it a 2 step process, where this year I tidy up, and next year I organize very well, like I wanted to this year.

Of course I always have my whiteboard outlook. I’m trying some new things out lately, and so this looks so much different than usual for me!

The stars mean I have a blog post I want to have up that morning. I try to come up with the ideas early on in the week, and certain things like my book of the month review, and some series (like the 5 lives series I have going on right now read my first life here and the second one here. My next one will come out this Sunday) have set days that they’re on.

Finally on to food, this was my initial set up for food for May. Then I was watching a Q&A video on YouTube, and during it, the mention of May “Shelftober”, where you clean out your cupboards, and really find savings in your grocery budget because you do a SEVERE meal prep/aim for a $25-$50/week grocery budget (depending on family size and location).

Since pencil sucks on calendars, and I’m more for aesthetics, May got scrapped on the calendar, and I took to a word Document, and made my new May food calendar. I’m sorry May in the calendar!

I know, this is tiny print, and ignore what else is on my screen. But this is the new May, with like a day of April and a few days of June, for sanity reasons (mostly budgeting/shopping day reasons). It’s a lot of noodles and leftovers, to say the least. But hey, food is here, and it’s a perfect time for me to try this challenge, as I need to save all the money I can.

Plus, what good is it to have food sitting around, if you’re never going to touch it? Food does go bad ya know! (haha, funny, I know)

So this is my very basic “plan with me” look. My life is usually like this, so don’t forget that over the next while, as I share with you a few months of intense exploring and fun!

I have one heck of a summer planned. I want to share my journey on how it came about, and how I planned (well, my end of) it all. Look below on my monthly outlook, and I’ll share month by month, what I have currently planned. I have some tentative plans, that I want to wrap up by the middle of May or so, that’s really happening during my June trip to CA.

June is totally my busy AF month. I’m taking a 2 week vacation from work (well, my “day” job. I’ll still have stuff planned for here during that time, plus creating stuff from these 2 weeks, for content). I’m half the envy for June at work, since I’m doing a cross-country trip, let alone for 2 weeks.

Backstory: my grandparents asked me back in the fall, if I wanted to visit Yosemite with them, as I’ve hardly seen the states. They didn’t have any concrete plans outside of doing it when my mom was also off, near the summer. Of course I said yes! Awhile later, some other things fell into place, on both of ours end, and they asked how long I wanted to be out there, so they could plan out the airfare. Grandpa always finds good deals, so I told them I wanted to be out till a Monday, since I’m off Mondays and Tuesdays, and it’d make things easier.

We crafted a 14 day plan, with 2 days of flying, both on Mondays. Since then, I’ve added some stuff, and have others in mind, keeping in mind of what some other family members might want to do, which is my focus for May.

Other than the 2 days of flying, there’s 3 hard days in Yosemite, VidCon (which is always up to the day, what we do), a solo date to Kevin Hart and Disneyland, plus whatever last few things come about.

July mellows out, since June will take so much out of my vacation time from my “day job”, plus I have my wisdom teeth extraction set into stone now.

I have a Panic! concert that was so impromptu, it’s not even funny. And taking off for it, was so fitting for my wisdom teeth surgery. It’s a very basic month. I’ll also be trying to do something with my step-sister and dad for their birthdays.

August is also gonna be a chill month, but come September, I’ll have some more stuff coming along.

I have a long awaited concert as well, which I planned before Panic!, which will be fun. That’s really all the plans I have. I’m sure I’ll need more me time to unwind from everything, plus the struggle of working full weeks again, off and on.

September is my birth month, and even though I’ll be working (probs) on my birthday, I already have 2 things planned.

My dad and I have been doing Renaissance faires off and on for years now, going to the same one up until this year. This year, we’re going to the one on the other state. This year, I’m going to drag babe along again. This will be a first for all of us. My step-mom might even come along, so double date much?

Then, I have plans *hopefully* just for babe and I to do a full moon tour for a wolf reserve, a couple weeks later, for a wolf reserve an exit or two prior to where we will get off for the Renaissance Faire. It’ll be an evening tour/chill session, to hear them all howl at dusk. I’ve been having a calling to visit a reserve for awhile now, and I believe this will be a cure.

Of course, I have to share with you, the fact that I’m marking how long till each thing happens. This is all the stuff I have planned, and as of this morning, how long it is until they happen. It’s just a free app for countdowns.

I’ll send my mom screenshots like this every so often, as she gets excited for the June trip. I haven’t seen my mom’s side of the family since 2014, and that was only my maternal grandparents and mom.

Of course, the next most important part is, thanking those who take care of you. My grandparents paid for half of my June trip, easily. I don’t know what they spent on it, but I did spend a pretty penny on my end, and I couldn’t have done what I will do, without them. And that’s just speaking on this trip.

I’m staying with my mom for the other days I’m out there, and not somewhere, so she deserves thanks as well. I have hidden gems in these cards for them, plus wherever I can manage to spoil them during the trip, I will.

I’ll be adding thank you notes, as I finalize the rest of my plans for the summer.